Don't Let Go
by Nargil
Summary: All she ever wanted was to prove them wrong to show them that she had a future, that she could make something of her life. But things never turn out quite how we imagine them. This is Sarah’s story.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Cherub was invented by Robert Muchamore, I'm just borrowing his idea for a while, Sarah and any other original characters belong to me.

Summary: All she ever wanted was to prove them wrong to show them that she had a future, that she could make something of her life. But things never turn out quite how we imagine them. This is Sarah's story.

Carrington Lancashire April 20th 2005

Sarah Hill seated herself at the battered white MDF desk in her room, it matched the cheap white wardrobe and draws that stood on the opposite wall to the white metal bedstead. She stared at the page of her exercise book, she had a new English teacher, the old one had gone to have a baby leaving her with Miss Fitzpatric and a rather bizarre English assignment. Fitzpatric wanted them to write down their aims in life.

Sarah had aims, and dreams, however she knew that most of the children who attended her High School did not. The school was located in one of the roughest areas of town and got some of the worst marks in the country. Sarah did not want to be there but as a resident of Sunny Hill children's home she had no choice. However Sarah liked school and she did well, she had come top of the year 7 Christmas exam, by 50 and she had better things to do tonight that stare at a blank page in her workbook, she started to write.

My Aims in Life by Sarah Hill 

_My first Aim in life is to get out of care, I want to get a job and earn a decent wage. When I was 7 my older brother killed my parents and tried to kill me, in my case he failed. He did it because he said that no one on this estate got anywhere they all failed, it was better to kill me before I fail too._

_But I am not going to fail, I will prove it to them all. _

_When I finish school I will go to college and then join the Army they pay well and sort you out with a house that way I can give something back to the country, to the people who helped me._

_I remember before my Grandma died she always used to tell me to hold onto my dreams and not let them go, don't let go…_

As she wrote Sarah's mind drifted, away from the bedroom with the faded yellow walls in the grey block that was Sunny Hill. Her mind drifted past the roaring motorway that ran by her bedroom window and away from the drudgery of a school where most students couldn't even be bothered to turn up yet alone work.

The ring of a bell brought her back to earth, the completed essay took up 5 pages in her exercise book, more than enough to fill the 250 words required. Setting her book and pen into the cheap black backpack she set off down the musty smelling pink corridor to the dinning room to get her tea.

The dinning room walls where painted lime green with an orange border and the tilled floor was always sticky despite the fact it was mopped regularly. Sarah queued up at the hatch with her plate, it was no different than school diners, the same catering company supplied the food and people dressed in identical blue Aprons with the county catering logo printed on served it.

Sarah got a burned sausage, a scoop of what was supposed to be mashed potatoes and boiled carrots for her tea, dessert was the usual, a bruised apple or an overripe banana. The general consensus in the home was that Jamie Oliver should be killed, since his TV series there had been no chips, cake, or chocolate in the home. Still it was food and she was hungry. Always tall for her age Sarah had dark brown shoulder length hair and rich hazel eyes. She was not the sort of girl who was stunningly pretty, but neither was she what the lads around the home refereed to as minging. She was solidly built but skinny enough that people never mistake her for being fat and she was fairly active.

Just as she was scooping up the last of her mashed potatoes a commotion broke out near the door.

"Looks like another new kid" Mark a short tubby 10-year-old remarked his mouth stuffed with carrots.

"Wonder what crimes they committed to get stuck in here" Ben his equally tubby mate replied.

"Or what crimes their family committed" Sarah remarked

"Eh?" Mark replied his mouth now full of banana.

"Well look at us all," Sarah explained. " Mark's parents where drug dealers, Ben your Dad was a car thief, mine where killed when my brother blew their brains out, now he's on life without parole, most the kids here are here because their parents are crooks, them that aren't get moved to foster homes or Spring meadow." The boys looked at her thoughtfully.

"That's true, wish I could go to Spring Meadow, that place is sorted, they've got PC's and everything. Ben remarked, Spring Meadow was the other children's home in the nicer part of the town and the local council's flagship in its child welfare reforms. It was where the nice kids got sent or the high profile cases, kids who'd been rescued from abusive parents or those who went to good schools, not kids of council estates like Sarah and her friends.

The new kid walked over to their table, he looked to be about 12 with black hair that flopped into pale blue eyes. He looked like the sort of person who did a lot of sport and as he sat down at the table he looked like the prospect of eating the food appealed to him about as much as the idea of rolling in dog dirt.

"Hi I'm Craig" he said with a hint of an Irish accent. "Do you mind if I sit here?" he asked.

"No it's fine, be my guest." Sarah told him.

"Be my guest, you speak pretty posh for someone living in this dump," Craig told her grinning as she turned scarlet.

"All them books she reads," Ben told him. "Hundreds of them, brings them back from the library all the time."

"Really, what sort of things do you like?" Craig asked, he sounded interested which made a change from people laughing at her.

"Um all sorts, I like Lord of the Rings the best, I'm starting on the Silmarillion now but It's pretty heavy going." She told him still a bit pink.

"Wow, I must say I'm impressed, my brother is 15 and a bit of a Rings nut but even he balked at the idea of reading that." Craig told her with a grin.

"Well yeah, listen, they take us swimming on Tuesday nights if you want to come, the pools not much but it beats sitting around here." Sarah told him eager to steer the conversation away from her literary endeavours.

"Cool, is this one of those, reforming the childcare system things the counsel are big on at the moment? He asked.

"Yeah, I'm taking advantage whilst it lasts, those two normally come as well" she said nodding to Mark and Ben, "we just lark around and have a laugh, swim a few lengths with a few of the others there's about 10 of us that go." She told him, Tuesday was one of her favourite nights of the week.

"Sounds good, when do we leave?" he asked.

"7pm, we meet by the main doors, a couple of the carers take us down in the minibus." She told him.

"See you at 7 then, what did you say your name was again?" He asked.

"I didn't" she laughed " It's Sarah, Sarah Hill, This is mark and Ben" she pointed them out to him.

"I'll see you at 7 then." He told her jogging off.

Sarah dumped the plates back on the dish pile and headed off to her room to get her swimming things.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Cherub was invented by Robert Muchamore, I'm just borrowing his idea for a while, Sarah and any other original characters belong to me.

7 o'clock found Sarah stood by the fake plant in the entrance at Sunny Hill, she had a carrier bag with her swimming things in one hand and was ready to go. Dave the carer who normally drove them to the baths had not arrived yet and neither had Craig. She heard the sound of laughter drifting up the corridor and Ben and Craig came running through the doors laughing like hyenas.

"Goes what we just did," Ben panted, he was bright red and not exactly fond of exercising, he only came swimming to mess around splashing people and to stare at the girls in their swimsuits.

"Um, robbed a bank," Sarah joked.

"Nah, we stuck a bucket of water over Mark's door, now he's soaked so he's not coming with us." Craig told her, he wasn't even out of breath but was still doubled over from laughing so hard.

"Good, he always dunks me too hard and I finish up whacking my backside on the bottom of the pool." Sarah grinned. "Not that I don't give as good as I get mind you." She told them.

"Yeah, we always had these huge splash fights at my last children's home, once we got kicked out for soaking a lifeguard." Craig told her.

"Sounds ace, looks like Dave's here with the bus though, so we'd better get off." Sarah said, walking towards the door.

They all clambered aboard the battered blue minibus for the 15-minute ride to the pool. Sarah and Craig ended up sitting next to each other on the back seat.

"So how did you finish up at Sunny Hill?" Sarah asked him.

"My mum had a heart attack and then my Dad took an overdose." Craig told her with a shrug "That was when I was 5, I lived in the same children's home since I was 8 but now I've been moved here." He grinned at her, "I liked the old place better but this isn't as bad as where I lived before I moved there. What about you?" He asked.

"My brother shot my Mum and Dad with my dads shotgun, he used to be a game keeper, then he tried to soot my, luckily the bullet only grazed my side, you can't really see the scar anymore, it happened when I was 7," She explained.

"What happened to your brother?" Craig asked her, he actually looked interested.

"The cops caught him, he's doing life without parole so I'll never see him again, good riddance if you ask me." She told him with a scowl.

"So you've got no family the, no uncles or Aunts or anything?" He asked curiously.

"No, what is this 20 questions or something, you don't say much about yourself." She quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Nah, I'm just curious is all, as for me there's not much to tell." He told her before staring out of the window effectively ending the conversation.

The rest of the journey was fairly quite, Ben and a 12 year old lad called Adrian where discussing the latest table football tournament and weather they could beat the girls this time given they had lost the last 5 matches. Two of the older girls, Gemma and Alex who where both 14 where discussing how to get Jordan a blonde year 11 to notice two year nine girls. Personally Sarah thought that if they shortened their school skirts anymore they would do better off wearing a belt.

The bus swung into the Car park and Dave dropped the group off with strict instructions to be back in the car park at 8.30pm prompt. This meant they had about 50 minutes in the pool and 10 minutes to get dressed on either side.

The group wandered into the pool showing their county leisure passes to the girl on the desk, Craig apparently had one from his last home, before drifting into their respective changing rooms to get dressed.

When Sarah arrived onto the poolside she saw Craig and Mark where hanging around by the diving board at the deep end of the rectangular pool. Slowly she walked over to them, dressed in her pink and blue swimsuit, it was designed more for sport than for fashion, unlike the bikini's Gemma and Alex where wearing. Mark was dressed in red swim shorts with his belly hanging out over the top as he dive bombed the pool, Craig's shorts where black and he dived with a decent level of skill.

Sarah knew she was a decent swimmer but you couldn't get her on the diving board, she had a chronic fear of heights and even though the board was less than 2 meters above the water it still made her fell nauseous to look down. The boys where both climbing out of the pool for another turn on the board. Mark climbed up the ladder and ran down the board before tucking into a ball and jumping off the end soaking Sarah and Craig with a gigantic splash. Craig gestured for Sarah to go next.

"No thanks, I'll just jump in here," She told him.

"Why are you scared of heights or something?" He asked her jokingly.

"Actually I am." She said, "And I'm not going off that board."

"For me?" he quirked his eyebrow again.

"Why? I don't see the point." Sarah was getting agitated at this point.

"Go on, just walk up and jump off the end, I dare you." He taunted.

"Only if I get to dare you next," She grinned at him but her face had gone pale.

"Yeah sure." He told her with a cheeky grin.

"Ok then" She set off towards the steps with a resolute frown on her face. Shakily she climbed up to the board itself before cautiously walking out along the board, by the time she got to the end her face had gone totally white. She paused for a moment before taking a deep breath and jumping into the pool.

Sarah hit the water with a bit of a splash before coming up spluttering but elated.

"Now I get to dare you" she told Craig.

"Yeah, I suppose you do." He said starting to look slightly pensive.

"I dare you to do a summersault into the pool." She told him a wicked grin on he face.

"What off the diving board?" he asked

"Well duh." Her grin now eclipsed her whole face.

"Alright then." He clambered swiftly up the steps to the board before running along and doing a crazy summersault off the end. He swam to the side underwater before popping up.

"so do I get to dare Mark now?" he asked.

They spent the rest of the time at the pool playing dares and having races, silly contests like who could hold their breath the longest or swim under the water the furthest. Craig won most of the challenges with Sarah not far behind although she beat him at the underwater swimming.

Before they new it time was up and so the clambered out to go and get changed ready to meet Dave and the minibus at half eight.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Cherub was invented by Robert Muchamore, I'm just borrowing his idea for a while, Sarah and any other original characters belong to me.

The next morning Sarah put on her school uniform, Grey skirt and jumper, white shirt red tie grouped together her books and went down to breakfast.

Helping herself to her usual breakfast of Cornflakes and the least mangled banana in the fruit ball she sat down at the table and started to read one of the newspapers that was delivered to the home each morning. There was an interesting story about a terrorist plot that had been foiled by undercover police in Turkey. The police had been tipped off by the men's suspicious activity by a neighbour and had set up surveillance. They had apparently managed to infiltrate the house to gather evidence of a plot to drive a truck full of explosives into the government headquarters, the article even showed photos of some of the bomb making chemicals found in the cellar.

"Good morning," it was Craig, he sat down next to her with a bowl of Rice Crispies. "Anything interesting going on in the world?" he asked gesturing to the paper.

"Some terrorists got arrested for planning to blow up the Turkish parliament, Tony Blair fell out with Gordon Brown."

"Again, can't those two ever get along," Craig said rolling his eyes.

"Only when public opinion goes too close to the conservatives, what do you think about the terrorists in Turkey?" She asked him.

"Old news," he shrugged.

"Old news! It's today's paper.

"Oh jeez, I went to speak to my care worker last night about school today, it was on the telly," He told her although Sarah thought he was trying to hide something. She had noticed that he was wearing the school uniform, complete with tie, something the boys at school rarely did, although his top button was undone and the knot was pulled low.

"Do you know which class you'll be in," She asked him.

"Year 7 set 1, well at least that's what my care worker said, probably means I'll be in year 11 set 6 though the way these places are organised," He joked.

"Yeah, when I first came hear they put me in a class 2 years older than me, they changed it quick enough though which is a shame, I was actually learning stuff, still looks like your in my group," She told him with a grin. "Not that I'm there much, I normally go hang around in the library or down at the shopping mall."

"You bunk off school!" He sounded rather shocked.

"Oh come on, don't go all goody goody now on me, besides I'm teaching myself maths and science from the GCSE text books at the library, there's no ICT to speak of and I like English and technology, I go to those classes." She told him rolling her eyes, "Besides it's a rubbish school, I wanted to go to St Austin's, but they said I wasn't in the catchment area, they just don't want Sunny Hill kids there, they think we're all wanna be ASBO's or something." She scowled into her Cornflakes, it wasn't fair, Sarah had the grades to go to a good school, she got A's in everything and she hardly ever went, even her class mates in the top set where only expected D's and they rarely achieved even that.

Craig looked at her sympathy flashed in his grey eyes, the last thing she expected to see. "I know how that feels, in my first home the school was rubbish, we hardly did any work, just played with Lego all day, as long as we where quiet the teachers didn't care, it meant they could go for a smoke. The school at the last place I was at was really good, I learned loads there but now it looks like I'm back to the grind once more."

"Bunk off then," she told him simply.

"Eh?"

"Come too the library with me, you can read the textbooks, the librarians ignore me as long as I'm doing school work, I've been trying to learn French but there's only a dictionary and a dodgy audio cassette so it's a bit hard but there's some good Maths books." Sarah told him eyes sparkling with mischief.

"I don't know if I should skip school on the first day," he told her, grey eyes concerned.

"It's only the morning, leave after registration, come back for lunch, then it's English and PE this afternoon. English is ok, our teacher gives us an essay tittle and we write whatever comes into our heads, and PE's a laugh, we play Football or Basketball boy's against girl's, normally we kick the boy's butts although you might be some king of sports wiz and change all that." She winked at him, the mischievous sparkle had spread to his own eyes and she could tell he was sold on the idea.

"Come on, we need to get this lot back to the kitchens and then get the bus else we'll miss it, then we're in trouble." She scooped up her breakfast things and dumped them at the hatch before sprinting for the door Craig tagging along behind.

Sarah dumped her bag on her desk with a sigh, she'd had the best day at school she could ever remember, well calling it the best day at school was probably a bit much they'd only gone for two lessons. Sarah had spent her morning in the library with Craig, he'd been learning Spanish since September at his old school, or so he said but he knew enough that she'd abandoned French and learned a few phrases in Spanish instead. Although quite what use, "Excuse me can you tell me where I can buy a cheese monkey?" would be in real life she wasn't sure.

In return She'd tried to teach Craig how to do Simultaneous equations with far less success, he seemed to have something of a mental block about them. She grinned as she thought back to how he'd somehow managed to extract and answer of 54 out of an equation with no equals' sign. They'd then spent the rest of the morning trying to gross each other out with the pictures of weird and wonderful ailments found in a battered old medical textbook.

They'd returned to school in time for lunch, although the quality of the food was hardly worth it. She'd had a good laugh watching Craig try to choke down his runny macaroni and cheese when Adrian and some of the other lads in year 8 where describing it as pig vomit. Then they'd headed out to the yard to play bulldogs, it was banned but the ancient dinner ladies employed to keep order tended to turn a blind eye as long as heads weren't getting broken.

She'd had to take Craig to the nurse partway through lunch, he'd smacked his nose on another lads knee causing it to start spurting out large quantities of blood although he'd got it under control in time for English by stuffing two bits of tissue up his nostrils. The English lesson had been a riot, today's essay tittle had been "If I was a Billionaire I would…" that had led to a noisy discussion about buying the playboy mansion or becoming a pop star. Craig reckoned he would buy his own fighter jet which prompted Karl to teach him to make Chinese darts. The lads and Sarah had spent most of the lesson throwing the highly accurate projectiles at the copy of the school rules behind Miss Fitzpatric's head.

P.E was as usual a boy's against girl's football match. Craig made Sarah eat her word from the night before by turning out to be the next Michael Owen but the girl's soon figured out the best way to get the ball off him was a five on one rugby tackle. In the end the two teams drew five all for the first time in ages.

When she'd got back to Sunny Hill Sarah had headed up to her room to dump her bags, which was where she was now. She hurried to get changed, She was going to go with Ben and Mark to show Craig the den they had built in the small patch of trees at the back of the home.

Somebody thumped on her door.

"It's not locked," She yelled. Gemma stuck her head around the door.

"Angela wants you in her office," She said before slamming the door and walking off. Sarah groaned Angela was her support worker and if she wanted to see her it wasn't good news. Angela was new and took her job seriously, she was the only person who didn't like Sarah truanting from school and had made that painfully clear the first and only time they had met. Sarah hadn't taken a blind bit of notice and had carried on skipping school and hanging out in the den with the boys. They often nicked chocolate and crisps from the corner shop for a snack only they hadn't done it in a while, last time they'd been chased down the street by the shopkeeper, she hoped Angela hadn't got wind of THAT.

Sarah changed into tatty jeans and a T-shirt before heading up to Angela's office on the third floor.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Cherub was invented by Robert Muchamore, I'm just borrowing his idea for a while, Sarah and any other original characters belong to me.

Sarah woke up in a room that to her looked more like something out of the movies. it was more opulent than any she'd ever been in during her early life in a shoddy semi or her more recent existence at sunny hill, it made even the room when she'd spent a few weeks at spring meadow in the aftermath of her parents murder look trampy.

She was led in a large double bed with a thick burgundy duvet that had gold squares printed on it. The bed was more comfortable than anything she could remember and she would have stayed there all day apart from the fact that she was stark naked. Realising this she sat up bolt upright in bed and glanced around the room in a panic before spotting a fresh set of clothes hanging over a chair. She wrapped the enormous duvet around her not knowing who else was in the room then walked over to the chair swiftly she pulled on the clothing.

There were olive green combat pants with zips on the pockets and black army style boots, they where made of stiff leather and seemed like the sort of thing that would take forever to break in but then last for ages once you had. The T-shirt was orange with a winged baby standing over the world and CHERUB printed underneath it. Sarah wondered if this was some sort of Brat camp that tuned bad kids into little Angels, although as far as she knew they only existed in the states. Still it seemed as logical as anything else given what she new about the place, which was nothing. She looked out of the window into the morning sunlight, the clock on the desk said it was 10 am which was strange given the last thing she remembered had been the conversation in the office the night before.

She'd knocked on the door of Angela's office and entered to find her support worker sat at a neat tidy desk with Sarah's file in front of her. Sarah preferred the room back in the days when Fiona had been her support worker and there where pictures on the walls done by some of the children in her care. Now the walls where blank just like the expression on Angela's face.

"Sit down" She said in a frosty voice gesturing to the chair opposite the desk. Sarah seated herself nervously, she new the file contained a record of her life since coming into care aged 7.

"Sarah, your record is absolutely appalling, your school attendance is down to 25% your reports show that when you do go to school you mess about. Now to cap it all your leading other students astray, pupils who come here with model records bunk off on there first day of school, to hang around with a nasty little girl like you," She sneered at Sarah before continuing.

"You're a swot as well, how is it that a pupil who has been to only 5 maths lessons this year comes out with a score of 95%. Your Science and English scores are similar, as is your technology, you're a bright girl Sarah Hill but a snide sneaky and cunning one. In the four years you've been here no-one has offered to foster you, quite frankly I'm not surprised, you don't add up you don't fit in here, you read all those fancy books and get ideas above your station. If I where you I'd loose the airs and graces and get used to it, your at the bottom of the pile people will pick up children with drug or Alcohol problems before you, your nothing and at this rate you never will be." She stopped for breath, Sarah felt like she'd been kicked in the guts.

"Still your not here to see me, thank the Lord so I'll be off."

With that She'd stood up and walked out the doors. Sarah didn't remember if one person came in or twenty, all she new was that she'd woken up in this room, presumably the next day although it could have been weeks, months or even years later.

The room contained the bed, a desk and chair, a wardrobe and a shelving unit with three draws in the bottom. They all looked new as did the flash PC on the desk and the TV / DVD combo on the shelving unit. There was a mini Fridge and microwave on a ledge near the wardrobe although no food in either. A large window looked out over some sports field and Sarah could see more buildings in the distance, the room was 3 floors up and looking down made her queasy, quickly she shoved away from the window. Two doors led off the room, one led to a bathroom that contained a sink, toilet and a large bath that had a shower over it. The other door led out into a corridor.

Sarah set off down the corridor in the direction of a lift door she'd seen as she came out of the room. She passed two boys both dressed the same as she was except that their t-shirts where grey.

"Excuse me," She asked but didn't get any further as the tallest one turned round and snapped "Can't talk to orange" before walking off, his friend smiled sympathetically but nodded towards the lift and made a downward notion with his hand.

Sarah took his advice to mean she needed to go down so she caught the lift which was uninhabited down to the ground floor coming out in a tiled reception area, relived she walked up to the front desk which was staffed by a young woman in a white shirt.

"Excu.."

"Can't talk to Orange" The reply was almost monotone and rather robotic but the woman pointed up then held out one finger.

Sarah headed back towards the lift, she could see the lads not talking to her as a joke but the receptionist not doing it was strange. Perhaps this was a place for bad people, perhaps it was to teach her the error of her ways she though remembering what Angela had said before she left her office.

Coming out of the lift she found herself in another reception area although this one had a dark wooden floor rather than tiles. "Good afternoon, please take a seat Doctor McAfferty will see you shortly, this receptionist also wore a white shirt but she had a friendly smile and gestured to a row of chairs against a wall. Sarah sat down her thoughts in turmoil perhaps she was in a psychiatric hospital, Angela said she was bad, maybe this was where they took the kids no-one wanted, the question was what if she wasn't wanted here either.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Cherub was invented by Robert Muchamore, I'm just borrowing his idea for a while, Sarah and any other original characters belong to me.

The receptionist typed something into her computer then stood up. "Dr McAfferty would like to see you now," She gestured Sarah to follow her down a short corridor with dark wood panelling and knocked on a large heavy door with a brass name plate that read 'Dr McAfferty Chairman' on it in an elegant engraved script. Sarah thought this floor seemed odd in with all the dark wood it didn't quite make sense compared to the rest of the building, mind you this whole place didn't make sense.

"Enter," a soft voice called in a Scottish accent. Sarah opened the door to find herself in a room with large glass doors that led out to a balcony at one end and a floor to ceiling bookcase at the other complete with a sliding ladder like the ones that used to be installed in old mansions. The books on the bookcase were all bound in burgundy leather and on the wall in front of the door was a stone fireplace complete with a crackling fire. Two leather armchairs stood in front of the fire but the owner of the voice was seated in a chair behind a large desk that stood in front of the bookcase.

"Ah Sarah, have a seat," he said making a graceful gesture towards the armchairs. He stood up from behind the desk and came to join her. She nervously perched in the chair nearest the window, he was a tall man and although his hair was grey he did not seem old but his grey eyes had a depth to them that she had rarely seen before.

"I do hope you are not suffering from any ill effects?" he quirked an eyebrow at her. "Although you shouldn't be surprised that you can't remember how you got here, that is the whole point of the exercise, and it is Thursday morning, you slept approximately 14 hours which is normal." Sarah looked up at him, it seemed almost as though he could read her mind.

"But then again where are my manners," he leant back in his chair resting his elbows on the arms and making an eloquent gesture with one hand. "I would like to welcome you to CHERUB,"

"Cherub?"

"It's an anagram concocted by our founder shortly after World War 2, unfortunately he died before he told anyone what it stands for and with rationing still in place we used the name because we couldn't replace the equipment. Should you ever think of what it stands for please tell me, this speech gets a little trying after a while."

"I didn't think they had brat camps back then?" Sarah asked perplexed.

"Cherub is a school Sarah," he told her with a smile "I am the current chairman, my name is Terrance McAfferty although you may call me Mac. We have 255 pupils at present aged between 5 and 18. We have more students going to top universities that any other school in the UK public or private. All of our classes have 10 students or less and the facilities are top of the range." His grey eyes watched her calmly gauging her reaction.

"What sort of facilities?" Sarah felt a trickle of curiosity thread into her brain.

"4 swimming pools, 6 indoor tennis courts, a state of the art martial arts training centre, an all weather football pitch and a shooting range are just some of the sports facilities. Most classrooms in the education block are equipped with digital projectors and interactive whiteboards we have fully equipped science laboratories wood and metal work areas, a brand new linguistics suit and the graphics studio has just been totally refurbished," He smiled kindly. "Our library has over 3000 books."

"W-why?" she trailed off unsure how to phrase her next question.

"Why do we want you?" A nod "because you meet our criteria for prospective students."

"And they are?"

"Rather unusual," Mac shrugged. "Let me explain, to become a student here you have to have no family, I know your brother is alive but even if you visit him he won't know where you are or what you do. You must pass our entrance exam and lastly you must be willing to work as an agent for British intelligence."

"Pardon?" her tone of voice suggested more that Sarah had heard what was said and didn't like it than that she was unsure.

"Our students, or agents as we call them are spies. I mentioned the organisation was founded after the Second World War, more it was founded because of the success of using young agents during the war. My question is would you be willing to undertake such work?"

"You mean like Alex Rider?" Sarah asked thinking back to a book she had read.

"Sort of, " Sarah gave him a puzzled look. "Allow me to clarify. All Cherub agents have an absolute right to back out of a mission at any time, we would never blackmail you into doing anything, all missions are passed by an ethics committee. Very few people know about Cherub, only the Prime Minister and the head of the intelligence services, anything that I tell you is top secret. No Cherub agent has ever been in space," He stopped and grinned "And to the best of my knowledge no agent has ever snowboarded down a mountain on an ironing board. Although of course I may be mistaken on the last one, it never ceases to amaze me what you youngsters get up to."

"So what happens now?" She asked.

"You're interested?" A nod from Sarah, "Then we'll get on with the entry exam, it has 5 parts and should last till about 5 o'clock, with a break for lunch of course, then we'll get you back to sunny Hill at some point tonight. So lets get cracking."


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Cherub was invented by Robert Muchamore, I'm just borrowing his idea for a while, Sarah and any other original characters belong to me.

They drove away from the main building in a silver golf buggy, as they went Mac explained all the buildings they where passing. There was the school, all glass and silver metal with posh stone, rather like the head quarters and then the Junior block and old gym, both built out of red brick with creepers trailing up the walls. The athletics track and changing rooms looked like they had been built in the 60's, square concrete blocks and flat roofs like a lot of the buildings in Carrington.

They turned off the tarmac road onto a gravel path that went close by the ruins of an old church that Mac said was ruined long before the boundaries of Cherub encompassed the ground on which it was built and an area that was marked our with grass football and rugby pitches. Then Mac stopped the Buggy outside a high chain link fence. Two older Cherubs waited there along with an adult in a white T-shirt, the two agents both boys of about 16 wore climbing harnesses although the woman with them did not. She unhooked a bunch of keys from her belt and undid the padlock on the gate before opening it. Gesturing at Mac and Sarah to follow her she walked over to a small wooden shed.

"This is our ropes course," Mac explained. "Normally we do our height tests on a specially designed height obstacle near the basic training compound, however that is currently undergoing maintenance so yours will be taken here instead." The woman helped Sarah into a climbing harness before handing them all helmets.

"Unlike the height obstacle out rope course has two levels, the pathway you walk on and above it a solid track. The track is fitted with trolleys that allow us to attach a safety line to your harness so you can't fall. However because this is a test you will not be allowed to use this rope as a handhold on any of the obstacles," She told Sarah as she yanked the harness belt tight. "The only time you will be permitted to touch the rope is on the areas of the course where the walkway is painted red, in these area you will need to drag your trolley around a bend or over the points in the track. Ashleigh and Josh will accompany you on the course and can aid you only on these sections."

They walked out of the shed and over towards the tree line, Sarah could see a slopping beam leading off into the trees with a metal rail about 8feet overhead. She swallowed hard to combat a rising feeling of nausea and tried to walk steadily on legs that felt like jelly.

"The rules are simple Sarah," Mac told her as the woman hooked Ashleigh's harness onto a trolley on the metal rail. "Don't fall off, don't touch the rope unless the walkway you are stood on is painted red if you do either of these you fail." She nodded grimly as the woman hooked her onto a trolley, Ashleigh walked forwards up the ramp a little so she could practice walking whilst pulling the trolley behind her. The woman then clipped Josh's harness on and the three of them stood in line by the start of the ramp.

"Off you go." Mac said gesturing up the ramp and Ashleigh stated walking.

I can do this Sarah thought; she was staring fixedly at Ashleigh's back. The ramp slopped at an angle of about 45 degrees and was scored with deep cuts to offer some sort of grip. Grimly Sarah stuck out her arms to balance, this is my ticket out of Sunny Hill she thought, a way to get the life I've dreamed of 3000 books and a proper school, all I've got to do is follow Ashleigh and I can have it. She took a deep breath and walked steadily on.

The log under her feet turned crimson and she saw Ashleigh grab his rope and haul it around a bend in the track before stepping onto the next log which was at right angles to the first and rose still higher into the treetops. He walked up a way to give Sarah the room to make the turn and she took a few shaky steps before wrapping her arms tightly around the pole that supported the beams and track pressing her face hard against the yellow pine.

"You have to drag the trolley round" Ashleigh told her when she hadn't moved in about a minute. Move she thought alarmed, but I just want to stay here, the pole was reassuringly solid and the thought off reaching out away from it to grab her rope frightened her half to death. Reaching out with a shaking arm she tried to grab the rope but wobbled dangerously and grabbed the pole instead hiding her face against it once more.

"Come on, you nearly got it then," Ashleigh said. "Take a deep breath and calm yourself down a bit then have another go." Behind her Josh moved up closer to the pole, it's all right for him she decided, he's been holding his rope all the way up.

"It's easy he told her." Grabbing her rope and using it to slide the trolley up and down the sloping bit of track before the turn. "But trust a girl to be scarred, she wants to hug a tree and dance in the fields in a pretty dress."

I hate him she thought gazing into his mocking grey eyes, I'll show him what girls can do, dancing in the fields in a dress indeed. With that she let go of the pole and reached out to snatch her rope swinging it round the pole with such force the trolley crashed into Ashleigh's up ahead. "Lead on," She told him, defiance blazing in stormy brown eyes. Quirking a brow he turned and carried on walking up the log, Josh jerked his trolley round the bend and followed on behind her.

Thinking about ways to kill Josh got her up the next two poles before the track levelled out onto a large square red painted platform, following Ashleigh onto it she grabbed her rope, more for something to hold onto than because she needed it.

"The next bits a bit tricky," Ashleigh explained. "The track splits here, one set leads onto the longer course where as our route goes to the right through a shorter section of 4 obstacles before we rejoin the main track to make our decent back to ground level, ok?"

"Yeah." Sarah told him, at least I don't have to do the longer course, she thought, although she didn't say anything, she wouldn't have put it past Josh to drag her the long way around if he'd caught her relief at not having to do THAT.

"You'll need to drag your harness over the points," She started to pay attention again. "Pull to the right and tug fairly hard and it should follow you, although make sure you don't fall off the edge if it moves suddenly," Ashleigh grinned at his own joke then demonstrated how to jerk his trolley over the joint in the track. Sarah grabbed her rope tighter and walked to just past the joint before giving the rope a sharp tug. The trolley didn't move, typical she thought. Gritting her teeth she took a step back then threw her wait forwards, the trolley clanged over the points and she crashed into Ashleigh who grinned then they walked forwards a bit so that Josh could get over the points and join them.

"First obstacle, watch where you put your feet the rungs aren't even." Ashleigh stepped out onto a ladder, it was strung horizontally between this platform and the next and the rungs where wooden latts laid at different angles, some so close that she could step on two with one foot and others a short jump away, and everything in between. I have to look down she realised, her stomach winding itself into an even tighter not, she'd been managing by staring at Ashleigh's back, now she had to look at the floor.

Carefully she set a foot on the edge of the ladder, it tipped to one side and she snatched the foot back. Gasping, she'd nearly fallen on the first hurdle she took a deep breath and then another. Reaching out tentatively with one foot she copied what Ashleigh had done and set her foot in the centre of the first rung, it held. Nice and easy, she thought just got to put my feet in the middle. Holding her breath she took her other foot off the platform and set it on the next rung before wobbling slightly arms stuck out like a tightrope walkers she made her third step. It's easier once you're going she thought by the fifth step she had the knack off it and eight steps and 2 small jumps later she hit another platform.

Pausing to let Josh catch her up she dared to peak over Ashleigh's shoulder at the next obstacle. A short ladder led up to two parallel chains that bridged the gap between this platform and the next. "Okay," Ashleigh was speaking again. "The next ones easy, up the steps hold the chains with your hands lay down between them hook your knees and boots over then commando crawl to the other side."

She watched him closely as he set off, it looked easy enough but in some ways it was the worst obstacle yet, she'd be face down looking at the floor. I'll shut my eyes she thought. Ashleigh calmly knelt and slid out onto the chains wriggling along like a snake across the dessert sands. When it came to her turn Sarah didn't even try to match his easy manner. Kneeling on the edge of the platform she screwed her eyes shut and groped along the edge until she had them in her hands. From this position she carefully slid herself out along the chains until she was lead along them with only her knees and feet still on the platform.

All she could hear was the thud of her heart and her short gasping breaths. Ok she thought left leg. Very slowly she shifted her leg up until her foot was on the chain. This isn't so bad she thought screwing up her nose at the Americanism as she straightened her left leg and slid along bringing her right leg onto the chains. Moving in an awkward half shuffling motion that was nothing like Ashleigh's graceful snake like manoeuvres she started out across the chains.

"Hurry up girlie!" Josh shouted making Sarah's eyes fly open. She froze. I can do this she thought gasping at the view of a muddy ravine bellow. The dip in the ground making her feel like she was even higher than she already was. She clenched her eyes shut and ground her teeth fighting away the nausea that threatened to overwhelm her. Slowly she started moving again reciting all the stupid bits of Spanish that Craig had taught her to distract her from the distance. After what felt like an eternity but was actually more like 5 minutes of minute shuffling her hands hit the platform and with a few quick wriggles she was standing on the treetop equivalent of tera-firma otherwise known as a nice red wooden platform.

"How can you call her a girl when you're the one with your backside stuck up in the air." Ashleigh taunted Josh as he crawled across the chains to join them. "Well at least I don't grope across like a granny." Josh said miming Sarah's wild hand movement as the walked around to the other side of the tree and the next obstacle.

"Right then," said Ashleigh. "This one is a bit more complex than the others; there's two ways you can do it." The obstacle was a cargo net between the two trees. "The idea is you climb across the net, you can use your hands and feet to hold on, just don't touch the safety rope. The tricky part is that the net isn't vertical. If you go on the left hand side your on the top of the net so it's easier but you get less marks. You go in the right side and you're under it, much harder to stay on and if you fall off you fail the test but pass and you score higher." Sarah had a good luck at the net it was at almost a two o'clock angle and she knew she wasn't very strong. I don't know how Mac's scoring works but if I fail because I was cocky and fell off I'll loose my only chance at a decent life before I'm 18. "I'll go left" she said softly.

Ashleigh nodded and set off across the left side of the net. Sarah followed him. I made the right choice she thought. The net felt solid under her and although there was a dicey moment when her foot slipped through the net she pulled it out and got to the other side with no major difficulty. Feeling buoyed up by the relatively easy obstacle she joined Ashleigh's laughter when josh tried to go the hard way and slipped off finishing by dragging himself along the bottom of the net dangling by his harness.

"This proves nothing wrench," He snarled as he scrambled over the lip of the platform. Ashleigh rolled his eyes and walked across the platform to the next section of the course.

"Ok, this is the part where you are most likely to fall off." He grinned at her, "hopefully you've done something like this on a playground somewhere otherwise you're pretty much screwed. It's quite simple each chain has a tire on the end and you swing from tyre to tyre until you reach the other side. The main difference between this and the kiddies play park version is that we're 30 feet above the ground the tires are on 10 foot chains and the bottoms aren't tied together, other than that it's a walk in the park." Sarah gulped, the play park in Carrington had one of these and it had taken four weeks of last summers holiday for her to figure out how to do it, this one was twice as long with no safety net.

"Wait till I get to the other side before you start." Ashleigh advised her. With that he set out swinging swiftly across without generating too much sideways movement. When he reached the other side Sarah set out. The first 5 tyres came easily but when she got to number six it all changed. She got the step wrong and spun wildly a couple of times before managing to dive onto number seven. She sat on the tyre pressing her face against the chain. I can't do this, the thought slid into her mind like ice down her spine. I'm mad, I'm sitting on a tyre in the middle of the woods somewhere in the middle of goodness only knows where with a group of crazy child spies who are probably going to kill me or Retcon me or something. Tears came unbidden to trickle down her cheeks and her shoulders shook in quiet sobs. Maybe Jim was right she thought, maybe I'm just another stupid kid whose good for nowt but to live on the dole and have three kids by three dad's by the time I'm twenty and slob round in my pyjamas all day cussing smoking and drinking cider.

Something inside her rebelled at her brothers old taunts. She couldn't let him win, she wanted to rub his face in it and prove that he couldn't rule her life. She wanted to let him rot in the slammer, he didn't deserve to see the light of day again. Shakily still gasping with sobs she stood up swung out and grabbed the eighth chain and slammed her foot into the eighth tyre. Repeating the process twice more she landed with a thump on the platform. Folding her arms she looked Ashleigh Square in the eye. He had to bite his lip to stop himself grinning at this skinny girl eyes red rimmed from sobbing but blazing with a defiance that said bring it on.

Once Josh caught up with them, ducking his head rather than taunting her they yanked their ropes over the point back onto the main track to walk down another set of sloping logs to reach the ground.

As soon as the woman unhooked her Sarah promptly ran over to the bushes and lost what little she had in he stomach. Embarrassed she looked back over to where Mac was talking to Ashleigh and Josh and walked still shaking slowly back over to join them.

"Right," said Mac, "Are you ready for the next test?"


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Cherub was invented by Robert Muchamore, I'm just borrowing his idea for a while, Sarah and any other original characters belong to me.

They drove back to the main building the same way as they left it. Mac left Sarah to gather her thoughts, she was still wrecked after the height test. When they got back to the main building he took her into a small room with bare concrete walls, a steel table and two plastic chairs.

"Are you going to interrogate me?" Sarah asked. Mac reached under the desk and pulled out a cage. In the cage was a large white chicken.

"No you're going to kill the chicken." He said in a calm voice.

"WHAT!"

"It's nearly lunchtime, I'm sure you're hungry I fancy roast chicken."

Sarah couldn't believe what she was hearing, who does he think he is kidnapping kids and then making them kill animals it was sick taking a deep breath she resolved to give him a piece of her mind. "Point the first I thought you wanted a spy not an assassin. Point the second, roast chicken takes over an hour to cook if you buy it from the shop, you'd be lucky to have this one ready for dinner let alone lunch. Point the third I'm a vegetarian so I won't be eating the chicken if you brought it to me roast on a platter." And with that she threw herself into the chair and scowled.

"I wasn't aware you where vegetarian, you eat meat at school and Sunny Hill, you can eat the chicken."

"I eat meat because I have no choice, we get two options if they both have meat I have to eat one of them."

"I'm sure the staff would be amenable to allow you your preference where you to state your feelings to them."

"Ha ha, I've had the same support worker for 9 month's excepting the day you brought me here I've seen her exactly once, she thinks I'm side, sneaky and cunning, even if they made me vegetarian food they'd put meat in it or spit in it just to annoy me." She scowled at him I thought he was the good guy but he seems just as bad as they do. She gave him a worried look.

"Sarah, if you where on a mission and it became necessary for you to kill an animal to survive what would you do?"

"Kill it."

"Then why won't you kill an animal now, it's only a chicken. How do you know you could do it when you have to if you can't do now?"

"Sir, whilst I can see your point I rather think I should put the issue along with the list of other horrendous thinks that may happen to me. Therefor whilst you may teach me how to kill a chicken in the same way as you may teach me how to kill a person, I would rather think the actual doing of the deed should be left for times of direst necessity."

"I think that is as far as we need to take this section of the exam then. We will have a thirty minute break for lunch and then reconvene at 12:30pm for the remaining three tests." Mac stood up from the desk and walked out into the corridor leaving Sarah at the doorway of a busy canteen.

Sarah pushed the swinging door open stepping into a barrage of sound and delicious smells. The queue for food stopped near the door so she joined on at the back trying to ignore the paranoid looks the lads in front where giving her orange T-shirt.

Reaching the front of the queue she grabbed a tray and tried not to gasp at the variety of food on offer. Being restricted to two choices a meal on a two-week cycle she was used to knowing exactly what she was going to get. Sliding her tray along she quickly collected a slab of margarita pizza and some curly fries with garlic Mayo before selecting chocolate fudge cake and ice cream for dessert. Once she'd grabbed her cutlery she turned towards the tables and spotted a salad bar so she quickly filled a bowl with a mixture of salad that actually looked fresh and edible rather than the going brown ready made pots that constituted salad at Sunny Hill. I could get used to living like this she thought.

Having already figured out that no-body was going to talk to her whilst she had the orange T-shirt on Sarah didn't even bother to try to sit with anyone. Instead she sat down at a small table near on of the large flat screen TV's and tucked into the food with gusto. Whilst watching more on the news about the Turkish terrorists and then about some footballer punching a photographer who caught him coming out of a night club in the early hours of the morning before a big game. Finishing her chocolate fudge cake and rolling her eyes about male egos and drunks in general she wondered over to the bins and trolleys where all the other kids where stacking their dishes.

She started walking back to the door of the canteen to wait for Mac idly wondering what all the different coloured shirts meant so far she'd seen kids in grey red navy blue and black. A lot of the staff wore white although Mac wore a suit. When she stepped back into the corridor he was there.

"Did you have a nice lunch?" He asked as the walked along the corridor.

"Yeah. Pizza, curly fries, salad and chocolate. All the things that we never get down at Sunny Hill."

"Well I hope you've not stuffed yourself too full, you have a busy afternoon ahead." He told her.

"Sir, I mean Mac, do all the different shirts mean anything?" She asked him.

"Yes, they're kind of like a ranking system. Guests wear orange shirts to remind agents not to disclose confidential information. Red shirts are for those children too young to train for missions, the minimum age to start basic training is ten. Light blue shirts are for those agents currently undergoing training. You get your grey shirt when you complete training and navy then black shirts are given as awards for excellence on one or more missions. The white shirts are for ex-cherubs when they leave at 18 and for staff."

"So the black shirts are like black belts in martial arts?"

"Sort of, many of the children who start here as red shirts have their black belt before they start training and anyone who starts older will get it in between eighteen months and two years, martial arts is part of the time table here."

"I don't know any martial arts, I did karate for six months but then the council stopped the funding."

"Well we're off to the dojo now so let's go and see what you know." Mac said as he lead them back out of the building to the obligatory golf buggy.


End file.
